dscott8 wrote:Manticore and Haven both have "managed economies" but are managed with different goals and strategies. Manticore encourages individual initiative, entreprenurial investment, and high-quality education (much of which is practical in nature, such as engineering and agriculture). Until Tom Theisman gave Saint-Just a 9mm lobotomy, Haven was a feel-good welfare state. It's a shame that it took a war to get them off their dole-sucking butts.
Manticore has "safety nets" for those in need, but the key difference seems to be their stricter determination of "need". If you're capable of supporting yourself, you get the opportunity to do so. You don't get to lie around collecting dole payments and watching Preston of the Spaceways re-runs. Because they have a low percentage of people living on benefits, almost everybody contributes to the economy, and "wealth" is generated.
The wealthy Manticorans we know of live on single-family plots of land, not in residential towers. They have air cars, where most city dwellers probably use public transport. Many have servants (which does not seem to be viewed as a menial job, so I guess they pay them well). They also eat very well, and I suspect that a really good cook is a status symbol. Being rich on Manticore is a good life, but I get the impression that extravagance is frowned upon (except for royals -- Manties are kind of British in that respect).
What strikes me is the way that social status is decoupled from wealth. Even before Honor started collecting prize money, her yeoman family had a huge estate on Sphinx, never lacked for stuff like hang gliders, etc. Sure, most titled families were wealthy, but a lot of "commoners" were wealthy too.
One of the main differences between Manticore and Haven that has always stood out, IMO, is the deeply ingrained
attitudes of self worth. Manticorans are taught to be workers, doers and not receivers.
How many people right here on Earth,
Americans, do you think would continue to work if they suddenly won a huge lottery? You have got to have it in your bones to
want to work. I hear it all the time, "Why do you work. You don't have to?" And I've never understood their lack of knowing.
I had earned a couple million before graduating college and I was more active in looking for a career than friends who were asking me "Why won't you just live off the interest?"
Incredible. If it isn't in you to work because your work ethics are lacking, then you won't.
I also suspect that Sphinx, being in the shadow of Manticore, isn't exactly a bad planet to be born a yeoman.
There has to come a threshold, where a planet as rich as Manticore, comes with luxurious amenities that are taken for granted. Manufactured items on Manticore are probably much cheaper. Apartments probably come with appliances that would cost a fortune on other planets that are included in the price of renting (if you're a renter) on Manticore. Everyone has a tv in America. The question is how many. Americans even have televisions in their bedrooms. (My parents never went for that. My wife and I agree on it as well.)
Attitudes, you have to have goals and strategies instilled within you. Take education throughout the world. The value of an education is well known in poorer countries. Americans take it for granted, and that ugly slip is beginning to show overall, under the skirt of ignorance.
